Federal Ministers Meet with Aboriginal Leaders

Federal Ministers met with national Aboriginal leaders to debrief them on the outcome of a recent First Ministers Meeting on renewing the Canadian Federation.

The meeting had been promised by Prime Minister Jean Chretien after national Aboriginal leadership expressed their opposition to being left out of the June 20-21 discussions.

In her statement to the Ministers Interim ITC President Mary Sillet emphasized three points regarding First Ministers Meetings and process

1. The exclusion of Aboriginal leaders from any exercise to renew the Canadian Federation, including the recent meeting of First Ministers, is unacceptable. Inuit insist that Aboriginal Peoples be full participants in future processes and meetings of this nature
2. In light of the exclusion of Aboriginal participation in the recent exercise to renew the federation, a federal-provincial process should be established to enable Aboriginal Peoples to address those matters discussed at the meeting of First Ministers
3. This federal-provincial-aboriginal process must be fully resourced and must involve substantive discussions of the issues.